Raising the Stakes
by SpikeFan4Life95
Summary: AU Season 4. Faith is on a mission to get Angel's soul back, and she will stop at nothing to do so... Will pretty much follow the same general plot as on the show, but I'm tweaking it and giving it a twist. Plenty of Faith/Angelus fighting, and quite possibly something a little bit more than fighting.


AU Season 4 of AtS

All characters belong to Joss/Mutant Enemy/etc. I'm just playing with them

**A/N:** To give you fair warning, I'm not quite sure where I'm going with this yet

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Water dripped off of Faith's clothes as she and Wesley made their way out of the last demon bar they hit up for information. Something was stewing in the pit of Faith's stomach from what happened with Wes goin' nuts and stabbing that girl. _Maybe he really has finally lost it,_ she thought, shaking her head and staring at her feet. It hadn't been raining earlier, but now it was coming down in sheets. Faith was so distracted watching her boots splash through the collecting puddles that she didn't hear Wesley offering her his jacket. She was off in her own world now. Faith was worried; scared all this violence was gonna make her snap again. She already went psycho on Wes's bathroom. She had been so close to going off the edge again with that girl, and Wesley stabbing her didn't exactly help curb the violent urges. Now she was practically drowning in them. She needed something to take it out on.

As if because of the mere thought of that, something decided to finally show himself. Of course, it being Angelus, he had to make a dramatic entrance. Wes yelled out in shock when Angelus practically appeared from thin air and tossed him into some nearby trashcans. Faith's head shot up and glanced at Wes as the trashcans cluttered to the ground. He'd be alright. This was just between her and Angelus anyways. "Faithy. A lil voice in my head told me you'd be here. Lookin' for lil ol' me? I'm touched."

Faith snorted. "Yeah – in the head." She retorted. Angelus clutched at his chest dramatically.

"Oh. I'm hurt, truly." He replied in a snide voice, dropping his hand from his chest. He paused, glancing in the air thoughtfully. "But not as much as you'll be when we're through," he told her before striking out with a powerful kick. Faith could honestly say she hadn't been quite expecting that. She was used to Angelus runnin' his mouth more than that. She flew back when his foot met her stomach and she crashed into and through the windows of the factory building behind them. She groaned when she hit the ground, feeling glass cutting into her skin. Angelus chuckled and jumped in through the window after her.

"You can't be done already, what happened to your spunk? Did ya lose it when you finally realized you really are nothing?" He asked before kicking her in the side, sending her flying through the air again. She groaned, clutching her side and attempting to crawl to her feet. Angelus's booted foot landed on her upper back, causing her to fall back on the ground again. Faith glared when Angelus crouched down in front of her. That smirked needed to be wiped off his face. She coughed and felt blood spill into her mouth before she spit at his face. He was hardly fazed, just laughed some more. He wiped the bloody spit off his face and stood up. "There's the Faith we all know and hate! Knew you were in there somewhere. Doesn't matter how hard you try and bury it – your monster will come out and play." He egged her on. Angelus was just dying for a fight. He wanted to knock down this Slayer and hit her where it really hurt. He wasn't particularly interested in killing her, he'd still do it, but he was more focused on breaking her.

Faith got to her feet and spit out another mouthful of blood on the ground. "You wanna play? Alright we'll play. Doubt you'll come out on top though, big boy," she retorted, going in for a punch. Angelus blocked the first one, but that left him open for the uppercut to his jaw. Add in the Slayer strength to the equation, and the playing field was a lot more level than Angelus liked it. His head snapped up and he stumbled backwards. Faith didn't give him the opportunity to recover. She spun and sent a roundhouse kick to his chest. It was Angelus' turn to get tossed around a bit. He landed on his back a dozen feet away and growled. Faith stalked forward and grabbed the front of his shirt, yanking his face towards her. She pulled back her fist and started hitting him in the face. "What's the matter, Angelus? Can't take what you dish out?" She asked as she continued hitting him. Angelus snarled and grabbed her wrist, twisting it.

Faith cried out in pain and backed away, clutching her injured wrist. Angelus cackled and got to his feet. "You were saying?" He asked before grabbing her and pinning her against a crate. She struggled against his grip, which only caused a lecherous grin to appear on his face. "Ooh yeah, baby. Keep that up and I might keep you around for later," he licked his lips and rubbed himself against her. A disgusted look passed over her face and she shoved at him with her uninjured hand. Angelus didn't budge; instead he just kneed her in the stomach. She doubled over slightly and he followed the kick with an uppercut to her jaw to make up for when she did it to him. "C'mon Faithy – give it to me good." He wasn't exactly giving her the chance to, but she improvised. Rather than hit him back, she kicked backwards, breaking the wooden crate behind her. The crate gave way, and Angelus was leaning so heavily on her that they both fell. Faith cried out when she felt a wooden shard imbed itself in her arm. Angelus brutally shoved her when he got up and she tried to follow suit. "Tryin' to change the game too soon, sweetie. I wasn't done," he stated, pulling a shard of wood out from his shoulder. He made a face. "I liked this jacket," he complained. Faith scrambled to her feet. She needed to just end this, she didn't want to because Angel was the one person who never gave up on her. He didn't call her a failure; a loser . . . didn't write her off as a monster. She wanted to return the favor, but she couldn't keep this up, not after the fight with The Beast, especially considering it was more of getting-thrown-around-like-a-ragdoll rather than an actual fight.

"Dude – just give up. They're gonna put Angel's soul back and you'll just go back to being nothing. Trapped in a cage, right?" She taunted, wincing as she glanced down at the shard of wood. She couldn't risk pulling it out right now because she was a bit too preoccupied to be able to hold decent pressure. Blood coated her arm; she could feel it sticking to her jacket. Angelus smirked.

"Babe – this whole taunting thing is my gig, honestly, you really suck at it," he told her, grabbing her by the hair and yanking her neck to the side. She flinched; she didn't really have time to do much besides that. Angelus' fangs burrowed into her neck and she felt tears prick in her eyes. So this was it. She was going to die. Faith realized this with a calm certainty. Just as she started getting dizzy and fading out, she heard a rustle behind them. Apparently Angelus was too distracted to notice Wesley coming up behind him until Wes shot him with the tranquilizer gun.

He grunted, cursed, and then fell to the side after Wes shot him again. Faith fell limply to the ground. Wesley grimaced, feeling as concussed as he did, there was no way in hell he'd be able to carry the both of them out, and he needed to hurry before Angelus woke up. He pulled out his phone, dialed, and waited for Gunn to pick up.

"What's up, Wes? We're kinda busy here," Gunn answered gruffly.

"We've captured Angelus. Hurry," Wes commanded, prattling off the address before hanging up and tucking his phone back in his pocket. Now he just needed to wait – which was much harder than it sounded. Wes glanced over at the mostly unconscious Faith and kneeled down by her. He took out a rag from his pocket and pressed it against the neck wound. He wouldn't be able to do much for her til they arrived back at the hotel though. He assessed her wounds while they sat there waiting for Gunn to arrive, hopefully with transportation of sorts. Wes didn't fancy dragging unconscious people down the street at night, even in a city like Los Angeles.

He glanced up when he heard the sound of a car pulling up outside the factory. Not even a minute later and Gunn was storming in, his own tranquillizer gun loaded up and ready to shoot. His gaze fell to Faith and then traveled to Angelus. "She gonna be okay? Looks pretty tore up," he commented, concerned. He'd seen people die from less.

"She should be as long as we hurry. I'm slightly concussed, so I might need your help with getting her loaded into the car. Can you grab Angelus? We'll have to tie him up. You brought the chains?" Wesley asked, slowly getting to his feet. Gunn nodded and grabbed Angelus and started dragging him out to the car, ignoring the shards of glass that might embed into Angelus's exposed skin. He really didn't care at this point. This was not his boss anymore. Faith had started to stir during all this and Wes helped her up and she leaned heavily against him. "Thanks, Wes. I – would've been dead if it weren't for you . . ." she trailed off as they exited the building. "Why'd you help me? After everything I've done to you I'd think you'd like to see me dead." Wesley shot her a surprised look. There was a time when he hated Faith, at least til he remembered it was partially his fault. He should have been a better Watcher, more aware of her mental state back in Sunnydale.

"Faith. Despite everything I am still your Watcher, and you are still my Slayer. Suffice to say, I actually do care whether you live or die," he told her and placed her in the passenger seat of Angel's car before heading to the backseat and helping Gunn put Angelus in the backseat. "You used Angel's car? I figured he would have kept the keys," Wesley commented, mildly surprised. Gunn smirked and gestured towards Angelus slumped against the seat.

"I don't think he'd mind, and yeah he did keep the keys. Good thing I grew up where I did huh? Hotwired it," he explained before leaving and getting in the front seat and starting the car. Wesley shook his head with a faint grin on his face and walked around to climb into the backseat and started working on chaining up Angelus while Gunn sped down the road, trying to get back to the hotel as soon as possible. Faith was not looking good. She was currently leaning her head against the window, ignoring the blood smear it left on the glass. She kept drifting in and out of consciousness. The beating and loss of blood from tonight combined with all the fighting she'd been doing had pretty much depleted her Slayer strength and healing. Guess there was a limit to it. Trying to ignore the pain in her arm from the shard of wood, Faith kept holding pressure on her neck wound as she pressed her forehead against the cool glass. She stared out the window, watching the water droplets from the rain run down the glass. After a moment, she closed her eyes and rested there. She'd need all the rest she could get because once she was back to full strength – she'd end this. One way or another, Angelus was going to be gone.


End file.
